Thank you everyone who took part in last week’s poll about book trailers last week. It was interesting (and most helpful) to see how you voted on the various questions I asked and to read your opinions.

Looking at the results, I think it’s fair to say that a good book trailer is a powerful promotional tool.

Over 60% of people who voted said they watch them. Assuming people in that first 60% were the only ones who answered ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Have you ever sought out more information about a novel or anthology as a result of seeing a book trailer?’, a whopping 60% of those folks said they’d sought out more information on a book as a result of seeing a trailer for it.

If we accept that a good book trailer is an asset, the next logical question (aside from ‘How do I make one?’ which I plan to cover in a future installment of my series on The Fine Art of Self-Promotion) is

‘WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD BOOK TRAILER?’

As you might expect, opinions varied, though most voters agreed on the importance of good background music and leaving the viewer with unanswered questions.

Voters also thought it was important that a trailer surprised the viewer in some way.

When it came to the question of how trailers should made them feel eg; happy; sad; scared etc, most people thought it depended on the type of book being promoted.

It wasn’t a poll question, but in the comments, a lot of people said they found longer trailers boring. They preferred them short – 60-90 second maximum.

Among the comments were links to some sites from where people can obtain images and music for use in their trailers including this one,http://animoto.com(thank you brimfire), a site where you can even have your trailer made for you. Places like www.gettyimages.comandwww.Istockphoto.comoffer a wide selection of photos; illustrations; flash; video and audio. Customers select what they want and make a one-time-only, royalty free purchase.

I asked for links to book trailers. Here’s a list of what you provided, along with the names of whoever gave me each link (if I missed one out, please let me know):Palimpsest Trailerjtglover